On Friday,
August 2, 2002, after nine consecutive sessions the muncipal
court in Decani, with Judge Haki Balaj presiding, annulled the
decision of the Government of the Republic of Serbia from 1997
returning to the Monastery of Visoki Decani a part of the land
which was nationalized illegally and without compensation in
1946.

For more
than three years there has been continuous pressure from the
Decani municipality to deprive the monastery brethren of their
right to use the land returned to the monastery by a special
contract with the Government of the Republic of Serbia in 1997.
This includes two land parcels totalling 23.45 hectares in immediately
proximity to the monastery which were, together with 700 additional
hectares of monastery property, illegally nationalized in 1946.
For years the monastery unsuccessfully sought to correct this
injustice and return at least a part of its property; however,
the local authorities had simply distributed the greater part
of the monastery land into the private hands of Albanians, who
built their houses on it.

Built on
the two above mentioned and now contested land parcels over
time were the Visoki Decani Motel, in the forest immediately
above the monastery, and "Apiko", a small honey-packing
plant; both of these were abandoned and have been closed since
the beginning of the 1990's. Finally in 1997 the monastery succeeded
in getting these two land parcels and the buildings on them
back from the Government of the Republic of Serbia. The contract
with the Government of the Republic of Serbia was duly processed
and recorded in all relevant land registry books, and the brethren
began to use their property, which had belonged to the Monastery
of Visoki Decani for centuries.

After the
war the newly established Albanian municipal authorities immediately
contested the decision of the Government of the Republic of
Serbia and sought every possible means to take away this land
from the monastery. In 2000, because of the firm position of
the monastery brotherhood on the property issue, two mortar
attacks were launched against the monastery in which, fortunately,
no one was injured. KFOR secured all monastery property and
UNMIK head Dr. Bernard Kouchner issued a special letter confirming
the right of the monastery to use its own land. However, the
municipal authorities pursued the matter and immediately filed
a petition which has, in the meanwhile, been transferred to
the district court in Pec, only to be bounced back to the municipal
court in Decani. The monastery brotherhood did not attend hearings
for the simple reason that the municipal court has no jurisdiction
in this type of case and because it considered such acts on
the part of local municipal authorities to be blatant examples
of institutional repression.

The municipal
court based its decision on unfounded facts and inaccurate information
with the intent of proving the illegality of the decision of
the Government of the Republic of Serbia. Special significance
was given to UNMIK Regulation 1999/24, according to which all
contracts concluded after March 22, 1989 are supposedly "illegal".
The best evidence of the arbitrary interpretation of this regulation
is the fact that the Albanians are not contesting any of the
contracts concluded in the last ten years which are to their
benefit.

The Monastery
of Visoki Decani will seek protection from UNMIK from blatant
institutional repression waged against the last remaining Serb
enclave in Decani municipality. While hundreds of hectares of
privately-held land owned by Serbs have been usurped by the
Albanians and state-owned property is being illegally appropriated
left and right, UNMIK must nevertheless seek to protect the
legitimate rights of the monastery which desires to preserve
its property and which is essential to its economic survival.
The monastery will also officially seek the assistance of the
Government of the Republic of Serbia which must not allow its
decisions to be annulled by court institutions without jurisdiction
or objectivity.

Information
Service of the Diocese of Raska and Prizren
Kosovo and Metohija,